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Improving Air Quality with No-Till Cropping / July 5, 2012 / News from the USDA Agricultural Research Service

New ARS research has found that using some no-till farming systems with spring cereal crops in the Pacific northwest can reduce soil losses from wind erosion. Click the image for more information about
it.

Improving Air Quality with No-Till Cropping

Studies by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists show some no-till management systems can lower atmospheric levels of PM10—soil particles and other material 10 microns or less in diameter that degrade air quality—that are eroded from crop fields via the wind. These findings could help Pacific Northwest farmers reduce erosion from their fields and assist communities in complying with federal air quality regulations.

Farmers in the inland Pacific Northwest favor winter wheat-summer fallow production systems so that crops can germinate and grow during late summer and fall. But controlling weeds and conserving soil water during the summer can require up to eight tillage passes. This produces a dry, loose layer of fine soil particles that can be easily eroded by strong summer winds.

The scientists found that in the spring, soils in spring barley and spring wheat rotations were wetter than soils in traditional winter wheat systems. In late summer, the spring barley rotation also had more standing stubble than the other two rotations. The stubble helped keep soil on the ground and out of the air. Spring wheat/spring barley rotations also resulted in soils that had larger and more continuous pore space, higher water infiltration rates, higher saturated hydraulic conductivity, and higher drainage rates.

Sharratt and Young concluded that annual no-till spring cereal crops could significantly improve water infiltration and retention and help retain crop surface residue in the late summer—results that improve soil quality and reduce soil losses from wind erosion.